The life and times of the most recent parish priest of St Joseph`s and St Wilfrid`s, Gateshead.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Tonight on BBC 2: ‘Kim Philby – His Most Intimate Betrayal

Erich Vermehren de
Saventhem and his wife Elizabeth in 1940

One of the names prominently associated with seeking to uphold the traditional Mass in the early days was Dr Erich de Saventhem. He was the first president of Una Voce International. He may only be a name to many Latin Mass enthusiasts but he lived a remarkable life. He was notable as a prominent anti-Nazi activist, refusing to join the Hitler Youth. In 1943 he defected to the British in Istanbul thanks to the help of Nicholas Elliott. I mention all this because there is a programme on BBC 2 tonight and tomorrow about Philby and Elliott which will mention something of the life of Dr de Saventhem. I am indebted to Leo Darroch for tipping me off and he has provided information on de Saventhem for the programme.

Born
in 1919 to a patrician Lübeck family, Erich Vermehren was the youngest of three
children. When the Nazis came to power all the family were considered
politically unreliable and Erich's repeated refusal to join the Hitler Youth
organisation marked him as unfit to ”represent German youth” at Oxford, having
won a coveted Rhodes scholarship. His passport was revoked, thus making it
impossible for him to travel to England.

Vermehren
converted to Catholicism shortly after his sister Isa (who had been expelled
from her school in 1933 for refusing to salute the Nazi flag). He subsequently
married Countess Elisabeth Plettenberg, a member of one of Germany’s traditional Catholic
families, which had clandestinely distributed the banned anti-Nazi encyclical Mit
Brennender Sorge of Pope Pius XI in 1937. Elisabeth's parents were
imprisoned by the Gestapo and she confronted them successfully and obtained
their release after three weeks. She herself was variously accused of
subversive activities and cross-examined on many occasions by the Gestapo.

As
the Vermehrens became increasingly involved in the various German resistance
circles it became clear that their lives were at risk in Germany. Erich, who had been
excluded from military service on account of a childhood injury, managed to get
assigned to the Istanbul branch of Admiral Canaris'
Abwehr counter-espionage organisation, which had become a refuge for many
anti-Nazi Germans.

Canaris
at that time, late in 1943, was making peace overtures to the Americans in
Turkey, where Franz von Papen, a cousin of Elisabeth Vermehren, was German
ambassador and had been asked to meet the American Archbishop (and future
Cardinal) Francis Spellman. The cousinhood of good German families then, as
now, dominant in the Foreign Service, ensured Erich's transition from civilian
life to the cloak-and-dagger world of the Abwehr.

When
posted to the Abwehr office in Istanbul, Vermehren was prevented by
the Gestapo from bringing his wife, and she remained “hostage” in Germany. Then, returning to Berlin on leave, Erich agreed with
his wife that they defect together to the British and that, to do so, she
should accompany him back to Istanbul. For this purpose,
Elisabeth managed to procure an official assignment from the Foreign Service
with regard to Archbishop Spellman's visit to Turkey. On the train from Berlin to the Turkish capital
their plan received a temporary setback when Gestapo agents detained Frau
Vermehren at the Bulgarian frontier crossing, leaving Erich to continue alone
to Istanbul. Luckily, the Sofia embassy Abwehr and the
ambassador, who was a close family friend, managed to spirit Elisabeth away
under the Gestapo’s nose in the diplomatic courier plane that touched down to
pick up the diplomatic bag at Sofia en route from Berlin to Istanbul

In Istanbul, meanwhile, Vermehren had
made contact in early January 1944 with Nicholas Elliott, the SIS's
counter-espionage man in the British embassy. Vermehren had gone to an address
in the Pera district for tea; a secret sliding door revealed the bespectacled
Elliott, who cheerfully extended his hand saying “Erich Vermehren? Why, I
believe you were coming up to Oxford.” Though the Vermehrens
took no documents or ciphers with them, British propaganda understandably broke
the undertaking to keep the defection secret, knowing that it would set the vipers'
nest of Hitler's competing intelligence agencies at each other's throats just
weeks before D-Day. On hearing news of the defection, Hitler was incensed and
summoned Canaris for a final interview, accusing him of allowing the Abwehr to
“fall to bits”. Canaris quietly replied that it was “not surprising”, given
that Germany was losing the war. Hitler
sacked him on the spot and the Abwehr was put under Heinrich Himmler's
jurisdiction, causing hundreds of its officers to resign and take up positions
elsewhere, even on the Eastern front, rather than serve the SS. The
disintegration of the Abwehr took place just as the plans for D-Day were being
finalised, an unexpected but useful coup for the Allies.

Although
the departure, in February 1944, had initially been set up to look like a
kidnapping by the British secret service in the hope of protecting the families
back in Germany, a few days later numerous
members of their families were arrested. Vermehren's parents, elder brother
Michael and sister Isa, and also Elisabeth's youngest sister Gisela were
interned in concentration camps in so-called ”Sippenhaft” (collective family
punishment) until the end of the war. Remarkably, all survived. Erich and
Elisabeth were smuggled back to England via Izmir, Aleppo, Cairo, Gibraltar and Lisbon. One can only call it
divine providence that all the members of both families survived their 15 month
concentration camp internments unscathed.

Soon
left to their own devices, the couple found it difficult to find jobs as
ex-enemy aliens, but finally settled as assistant teachers at Worth Priory, a
Benedictine preparatory school. They then lived for a while near Brompton
Oratory, but it was five years before Eric found a decent job with a firm of
Lloyds brokers. It was during their stay in England that they changed their
name to Vermehren de Saventhem for genealogical reasons. To most people
thereafter, they were known as Eric and Elisabeth de Saventhem.

Eric
made a highly-respected reputation in the field of insurance broking for major
civil engineering projects, managing the firm's Swiss subsidiary in Zurich for ten years and then
being appointed Director for Europe in 1964. They moved to Paris and then on to
Switzerland where they settled on the shores of Lake Geneva, both all the while
continuing to be active in traditionalist circles of the Catholic Church after
Vatican II. It was only in 2000, when Elisabeth's health was failing, that the
de Saventhems decided to move back to Germany to be near other members of
their families.

After
Vatican II, Eric became a leading voice in the young Una Voce movement and was
indeed one of the founding members of the International Federation. It was in
1982 that Eric abandoned his very successful career in insurance to dedicate
himself exclusively to the traditionalist cause. He was Una Voce's first
president and with such a remarkable life experience behind him, coupled with a
brilliant intellect and a mastery of languages he fought the cause for the
traditional liturgy with unflagging energy and conviction, always ably
supported by Elisabeth.

Like
Michael Davies, who succeeded him in the Presidency, Eric de Saventhem was a
convert to the Catholic faith. The Una Voce movement could have had no better
champions than these two men whose deep conviction, personal courage, and
devotion to the traditional liturgy of the Church became even stronger as the
modern liturgy disintegrated. Sadly, Eric and Michael have gone to their
heavenly reward, but it is imperative that we build on what they left us and
carry on fighting for the full restoration of Tradition.

…………………………………………….

Taken from ‘The
Independent’ obituary of 3 May 2005 by Richard Bassett with
additional information provided by family members and friends.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” 13 Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?Judges 6.12